Tuesday

Eugene School Board members know they're asking a lot from voters in November.

The board last Wednesday decided to put the largest bond measure in Lane County history before Eugene School District voters in the Nov. 6 election.

“It’s a bigger lift than any other one they’ve dealt with," Board Chairwoman Alicia Hays said about the bond measure. "We’re really going to need to depend on the community to help us get this going."

At $319.3 million, the measure to build and renovate schools would increase the property taxes on a median assessed home of $204,147 by about $135 a year, district officials said. That hike would be on top of the roughly $1,600 that the owner of a median assessed home already pays to support district schools.

The general obligation bond would rebuild North Eugene High School ($135 million cost), Edison Elementary School ($42 million) and Camas Ridge Elementary School ($40 million). It also would renovate parts of Gilham Elementary School ($9 million).

Other listed projects include $31 million in maintenance repairs and improvements; $16 million worth of school safety, security and seismic upgrades; $12 million to provide equitable facilities; $8 million for curriculum; $6 million for career technical education; $6 million for technology; and $4.8 million for school buses.

With a big task ahead, board members and bond supporters last week immediately got to work on the political campaign to pass the measure.

Hays and board member Mary Walston met on Thursday to discuss strategies such as creating a campaign website, deciding what neighborhoods to target for door-to-door visits and what donors to ask for money, and how to talk to voters about the measure.

Bond supporters are hopeful that the measure will pass, similar to the $170 million school construction bond measure voters approved five years ago. Yet they know they will have to persuade skeptical voters.

Bicycle shop owner Paul Nicholson, for example, wants to know that the district is spending taxpayers' money wisely.

“I’m very concerned about the schools and would much prefer to vote for (the bond) instead of against it,” said Nicholson, whose two children graduated from the district. “But I’m a little distressed about the lack of evidence-based information. It seems like all they talk about is getting a bond passed to build new schools, but what I don't understand is why they're not looking at the reasons for declining performance of district students."

Oregon has the third-worst high school graduation rate in the nation. Only 76.7 percent of students in the state received a diploma within four years in 2017, according to the state Department of Education.

"Maybe their needs are legitimate, but I think they need to get out there and justify it," Nicholson said.

Bond supporters say they will do that, especially after Labor Day, when fall campaigns become more active.

Kari Parsons, whose children attended Edison Elementary School, said the bond measure may seem large, but it's less than the $1 billion that the district says it needs to upgrade all of its facilities.

“The bond that’s proposed is less than one-third of the need of the district,” Parsons said. “So, it seems really big, but it’s really lean and there’s no fluff.”

A 2007 study by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries found that six Eugene district schools, including Edison Elementary, had a high risk of collapsing in a powerful earthquake. Edison also is the oldest school in the district, constructed in 1926, and supporters say it's in dire need of an update.

In addition, the cost to build an elementary school has nearly doubled since passage of the last district bond five years ago, and construction costs are expected to increase, according to district estimates.

The bond that passed in 2013, for example, paid for the construction of four district schools, including Arts and Technology Academy ($35 million), River Road/El Camino del Río ($24 million), Roosevelt Middle School ($42 million) and Howard Elementary School ($32 million).

“The importance of this for the community is hard to overstate,” Parsons said. "If we don’t pass this, essentially, it would be devastating. Not only would all of this maintenance get more expensive, the problems would not go away, forcing the district to pull dollars from the general fund and leave us with larger class sizes."

Other school supporters are gearing up for the campaign.

On Friday, about a dozen people, including Hays, Walston, board member Evangelina Sundgrenz, district parents and middle school students, gathered at Hays’ house to hand address about 400 letters to potential donors. The letters contained information about the bond measure, what it might cost the average taxpayer and how the bond funding would be used.

Walston said Monday that the board is hoping to raise about $20,000 for the campaign. Most of the money would be spent on campaign advertising. The board is using an already established political action committee called Yes For Schools to collect and spend the money. The PAC has $6,876 in funds left from previous political campaigns.

Walston said supporters will start visiting voters in September, when most people are back from summer vacations and children are back in school.

“We’re still working this strategy out, but we’ll definitely want to talk to people in the north region, the Edison area and Camas Ridge,” in south Eugene, Walston said.

Joy Marshall, of Stand For Children, an education advocacy group, said about 200 parents and residents so far have signed up to canvass neighborhoods. “We expect to knock on 10,000 to 20,000 doors,” she said.